Pat Martin is a retired professional broadcaster formerly on KRXQ. As of July 6, 2021, he did the morning show on sister station KSEG The Eagle, the classic rock station in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

Early life

Martin grew up in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. He attended

Lynwood High School Lynwood High School is one of three high schools in Lynwood, California, USA. It is a part of the Lynwood Unified School District. History Lynwood High School was built on Bullis Road from 1940-1998 (currently used as a middle school, Lynwood ...

after which he attended Magnolia High School in

Anaheim Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

. He then attended

Cypress College Cypress College is a public community college in Cypress, California. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and belongs to the North Orange County Community College District. It offers a variety of general education (55 associat ...

before transferring to

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

, where he began working at campus radio station KCR-FM. Martin's first experience in the entertainment industry was in 1968 on the

Art Linkletter Arthur Gordon Linkletter (born Gordon Arthur Kelly or Arthur Gordon Kelly; sources differ; July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010) was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of ''House Party'', which ran on CBS radio a ...

Show, on the segment known as "Kids Say The Darndest Things".

Career

Upon graduating from college, Martin was hired by

KGB-FM KGB-FM (101.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Diego, California. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia and broadcasts a classic rock music format. KGB-FM's studios are located in San Diego's Kearny Mesa neighborhood on th ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, where he worked from 1978 to 1988 with a one-year break in between to work at KMET-FM in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 1986–1987. In 1988, Martin accepted a job at KRXQ-FM. He has run the midday shift (10 am to 3 pm) since August 8, 1988 and has the longest running consecutive show in Sacramento radio history. In 2010, radio historian and author Alex Cosper wrote about Martin in his article "Sacramento Radio History" from the web site "playlistresearch.com": In 2010, Pat Martin revealed that he loved his job, stating that "the listeners consider ima friend". In a 2013 interview with music website All Access, Martin stated, “In Sacramento, I am generally known as the guy who put Tesla back together. It happened in 2000. The guys had been fighting for years and I somehow convinced them to resurrect their career with a comeback show at The Arco Arena.” On August 8, 2018, Martin celebrated his 30th anniversary on KRXQ (98 Rock), with guest appearances on his show from

Ben Fong-Torres Benjamin Fong-Torres ( 方振豪; Cantonese: Fong Chan Ho; born January 7, 1945) is an American rock journalist best known for his association with ''Rolling Stone'' magazine (until 1981) and the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' (from around 1982). B ...

of Rolling Stone magazine fame, Sacramento Mayor

Darrell Steinberg Darrell Steven Steinberg (born October 15, 1959) is an American politician and attorney who is the 56th mayor of Sacramento, California since December 2016. He was elected to be mayor on June 7, 2016 (avoiding a runoff). Before that, he was Cali ...

, and Frank Hannon from the Sacramento band Tesla. On September 29, 2023, Pat Martin wrapped up his radio broadcasting career. His final broadcast on KSEG 96.9 FM (The Eagle), put an end to a remarkable 46 year career, 35 of them on Sacramento airwaves. After four decades of wearing headphones for several hours a day, in addition to attending well over 1000 concerts, Pat developed tinnitus (ringing in the ears), which he cited as the reason he chose to retire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Pat Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Lynwood High School alumni San Diego State University alumni